Dorothea Puentes's Arc

Chapter 1 of 9

Dorothea pulled weeds from the garden bed, her knees pressed into the soft dirt. She wanted the social worker to see a perfect home. Trust was everything now. If she could prove the complaints were wrong, maybe life would settle down again. The white boarding house stood behind her, quiet in the morning light. Each window needed washing. The porch steps needed sweeping. She had three hours before the visit. Three hours to show she ran a good place. Three hours to prove the neighbors were mistaken about her. She pushed herself up from the dirt and brushed off her floral dress. Her glasses had slipped down her nose from the work. The social worker would ask questions about her tenants. About the meals she cooked. About how she managed the house alone. Dorothea had answers ready. Simple answers. Honest answers. The boarding house was her life's work, and she wouldn't let anyone take it away. She picked up the garden basket and walked toward the front door. Time to make everything shine. Inside, she wiped down the kitchen counters and checked the donation bin by the back door. The metal container held three sections marked with labels. Clothes on the left. Food in the middle. Household items on the right. She collected items from her tenants each week and took them to families who needed help. The social worker should know about this. It showed she cared about the community. It showed she wasn't the person from the complaints. Dorothea straightened the labels and made sure everything looked organized. Small acts of kindness mattered. They built trust, one piece at a time. She walked to the front porch and looked down the street. The charity coin bin sat near the corner, its metal surface catching the sunlight. She had placed it there two months ago to collect money for elderly folks who needed help with medicine and food. The bin had intricate designs carved into the sides, and people stopped to drop coins in every day. Dorothea managed the donations herself, making sure every penny went where it was needed. At least, that's what everyone believed. The social worker would hear about it from the neighbors. They would tell her that Dorothea Puentes was a woman who gave back. A woman who could be trusted. And that's exactly what she needed them to say.